The only thing the modern day Alexandria has going for it is the coastal breeze from the Mediterranean.
Founded by Alexander the Great, yet is bears no trace of him (or anything much). It is hard to imagine that this filthy city was once regarded as the most learned place on earth and was second only to Rome in size.
There is litter everywhere, it is, in fact Egypt is, one giant rubbish dump – probably the biggest tip in the world. I can’t understand why no one in this country can put something in the bin. To get to the ocean, if you dare, you have to wade through a sea of trash that covers the entire strip of sand.
We only had one afternoon here which I was not upset about. We visited the catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa a Roman burial site that was discovered when a donkey disappeared down a hole one day at the turn of last century. They were quite creepy. You had to descend down a circular shaft. On three different levels were various tombs with pigeon holes for bodies. There was a particularly creepy funery temple that Jon took an illegal photo of. He just can’t help himself despite the giant signs with a cross through the picture of a camera.
We then wandered briefly around the antique shop area of town that I had read about. We gave up pretty quickly as the shops were piled high with dusty, mostly broken, bits and pieces and were not back pack friendly. Perhaps the broken things were from previous visitors. It wouldn’t surprise me if the layout of the interiors were designed for tourists to break items so they would have to pay.
Next, we caught a taxi to the fort which is built on the site of the famous Pharos lighthouse. Wandering back along the ocean we marveled at the litter and then thought we would check out this bibliotech our guide Mo was raving about. The New Alexandria library was inspired by the original Great Library that was here in Alexandria’s hey day a few thousand years back. The architecture was quite nice and it must be the cleanest building in the country but it was just a library and one that we had to pay for the pleasure of entering.
Dinner = delicious seafood.
Founded by Alexander the Great, yet is bears no trace of him (or anything much). It is hard to imagine that this filthy city was once regarded as the most learned place on earth and was second only to Rome in size.
There is litter everywhere, it is, in fact Egypt is, one giant rubbish dump – probably the biggest tip in the world. I can’t understand why no one in this country can put something in the bin. To get to the ocean, if you dare, you have to wade through a sea of trash that covers the entire strip of sand.
We only had one afternoon here which I was not upset about. We visited the catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa a Roman burial site that was discovered when a donkey disappeared down a hole one day at the turn of last century. They were quite creepy. You had to descend down a circular shaft. On three different levels were various tombs with pigeon holes for bodies. There was a particularly creepy funery temple that Jon took an illegal photo of. He just can’t help himself despite the giant signs with a cross through the picture of a camera.
We then wandered briefly around the antique shop area of town that I had read about. We gave up pretty quickly as the shops were piled high with dusty, mostly broken, bits and pieces and were not back pack friendly. Perhaps the broken things were from previous visitors. It wouldn’t surprise me if the layout of the interiors were designed for tourists to break items so they would have to pay.
Next, we caught a taxi to the fort which is built on the site of the famous Pharos lighthouse. Wandering back along the ocean we marveled at the litter and then thought we would check out this bibliotech our guide Mo was raving about. The New Alexandria library was inspired by the original Great Library that was here in Alexandria’s hey day a few thousand years back. The architecture was quite nice and it must be the cleanest building in the country but it was just a library and one that we had to pay for the pleasure of entering.
Dinner = delicious seafood.
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